Well - I can certainly say that it is a blast to fly, and all of the time that I spent visually/mechanically trimming before I left worked pretty much perfectly. One click right aileron, one click down elevator and it was like an arrow hands-off. BUT...

Holy cow was this thing tail heavy from hell with a Nano 2650 all the way forward It flew really well at WOT, but had a bit of coupling in knife edge so I knew it was at least a BIT tail heavy - but it was worse than I thought. When coming in on final, I rolled the throttle down to just below 50% and it started an immediate climb. After a go-around, I tried to bring it in hot but I would have had to hold the nose down steeply and land it hauling-@$$. This wasn't going to work even on the manicured grass strip. I managed to coax it down after much sweating, only to have one of the wheelpants catch (after rolling 15-20 feet already, mind you) and whipped the plane around, threw the wheel out (axle/screw now MIA) and cracked both wheelpants

Wow is this 'plastic wheelpants clamshell tension necessary to hold axle in place' setup crappy. I ended up taking the whole thing off, bending the gear back in place, pushing the blind nuts out of the wheelpants and just using a couple extra screws with those nuts and a dab of Loctite CA to affix the wheels back on to the bracket by themselves.

The CG measured out somewhere over 110-115mm I guess I'm going to have to pick up a 3300mAh battery just to try - the 2650s don't seem to work well at all. Oh, and I would like to smack the design team responsible for the metal-thread tailwheel assembly - good grief.

Carve some foam and shove that battery forward! Lighten up that tailwheel assembly! Foamies were meant to mod! I love the size and looks of.this plane but have wondered how it would stand up to hard spins, tumbles and other high energy stuff. Perhaps someone can say?

Carve some foam and shove that battery forward! Lighten up that tailwheel assembly! Foamies were meant to mod! I love the size and looks of.this plane but have wondered how it would stand up to hard spins, tumbles and other high energy stuff. Perhaps someone can say?

This is what I would like to know, I am getting one of these planes next month (along with 2 others)

Well - I can certainly say that it is a blast to fly, and all of the time that I spent visually/mechanically trimming before I left worked pretty much perfectly. One click right aileron, one click down elevator and it was like an arrow hands-off. BUT...

Holy cow was this thing tail heavy from hell with a Nano 2650 all the way forward It flew really well at WOT, but had a bit of coupling in knife edge so I knew it was at least a BIT tail heavy - but it was worse than I thought. When coming in on final, I rolled the throttle down to just below 50% and it started an immediate climb. After a go-around, I tried to bring it in hot but I would have had to hold the nose down steeply and land it hauling-@$$. This wasn't going to work even on the manicured grass strip. I managed to coax it down after much sweating, only to have one of the wheelpants catch (after rolling 15-20 feet already, mind you) and whipped the plane around, threw the wheel out (axle/screw now MIA) and cracked both wheelpants

Wow is this 'plastic wheelpants clamshell tension necessary to hold axle in place' setup crappy. I ended up taking the whole thing off, bending the gear back in place, pushing the blind nuts out of the wheelpants and just using a couple extra screws with those nuts and a dab of Loctite CA to affix the wheels back on to the bracket by themselves.

The CG measured out somewhere over 110-115mm I guess I'm going to have to pick up a 3300mAh battery just to try - the 2650s don't seem to work well at all. Oh, and I would like to smack the design team responsible for the metal-thread tailwheel assembly - good grief.

Wow, JayDoc! I'm so sorry to hear about your flight and damage. I fly my version 1 with a 311g 2650mah battery, and the plane balances just a few mm aft of recommended. I had originally put ballast on the firewall to get it to balance, but the ballast worked loose so I just took it off. I've flown with a 2650 battery and a 3000 battery with and without the ballast. The airplane flies great whatever the configuration. Maybe the version 2 starts out naturally tail heavy due to the single elevator servo at the back of the fuselage. The v1 has two smaller servos under the cockpit.

I'm with you on the wheel pants and axles. I wound up taking the wheel pants off for a while, and installing some dubro axles and larger wheels until I got to where I could land the plane smoothly. I later ordered a replacement gear set and installed it, and have since flown more times than I can count without damaging the pants or the axles. One thing I did learn, though: Put blue locktite on the axle nuts. The left gear (or was it the right?) always came loose because the rotation of the wheel was in the direction of unscrewing the nut. Also, I had to carve the foam off the gear where the pants attach in order to get a solid installation. Oh, and they taped a bag to the outside of the box that had longer replacement wheel pants bolts. They probably included them inside the box on the v2.

Wow, JayDoc! I'm so sorry to hear about your flight and damage. I fly my version 1 with a 311g 2650mah battery, and the plane balances just a few mm aft of recommended. I had originally put ballast on the firewall to get it to balance, but the ballast worked loose so I just took it off. I've flown with a 2650 battery and a 3000 battery with and without the ballast. The airplane flies great whatever the configuration. Maybe the version 2 starts out naturally tail heavy due to the single elevator servo at the back of the fuselage. The v1 has two smaller servos under the cockpit.

I'm with you on the wheel pants and axles. I wound up taking the wheel pants off for a while, and installing some dubro axles and larger wheels until I got to where I could land the plane smoothly. I later ordered a replacement gear set and installed it, and have since flown more times than I can count without damaging the pants or the axles. One thing I did learn, though: Put blue locktite on the axle nuts. The left gear (or was it the right?) always came loose because the rotation of the wheel was in the direction of unscrewing the nut. Also, I had to carve the foam off the gear where the pants attach in order to get a solid installation. Oh, and they taped a bag to the outside of the box that had longer replacement wheel pants bolts. They probably included them inside the box on the v2.

Good point on the servo weight - there are 2 (rudder & elevator) decent-sized servos mounted on the tail of the v2, that could very well be what is causing the CG issue. I flew it with a 3300 pushed all the way forward last weekend (CG was reading just a few mm aft now), with better flight characteristics but still overly floaty on landing (just need to change my own landing input on the sticks).

The included screws that I used to mount the wheels sans-pants (heh) are really bendy, and I haven't found 4mm steel screws to replace them. Right now, I just have a washer and locknuts securing the wheels to the stock screws. How are you mounting the Dubro axles? Looking at the catalog pics, it seems like the threaded end is much larger than 4mm (to fit the stock gear bracket) - I did see the separate collars to secure the wheels on the 'axle', but how are you securing them to the bracket? Also - are you using the 3/16" or 5/32" Dubro axles?

How are you mounting the Dubro axles? Looking at the catalog pics, it seems like the threaded end is much larger than 4mm (to fit the stock gear bracket) - I did see the separate collars to secure the wheels on the 'axle', but how are you securing them to the bracket? Also - are you using the 3/16" or 5/32" Dubro axles?

Thanks!

Jay

Actually, I used 1/8th-inch axles. It requires enlarging the hole that the bolt-axle goes through by drilling it out with a 1/4-inch bit. Once you've done that, of course, you can't go back to the original bolt axles, or use the wheel pants. That's why I ordered another landing gear set from Nitroplanes once I had learned to reliably grease my landings. As you already know, the axles/wheelpants/gear doesn't do too well with bouncy landings. It's also a really good configuration if you are flying off of grass. It doesn't look as good as the wheel pants...

But she is ready to go now after about 3 hours. Had to heat up and straighten the aileron. Remove the pilot and add a little weight to the front to meet the 95mm CG.

Still need to set the throws for the maiden. Any suggestions on where to start? The instructions are poor to say the least, but not really needed anyway as it is a pretty straight forward assembly.
It's my first "sport" plane and am thinking about low rates around 50% of max throws and 30% expo for the maiden, sound okay? I need all the help I can get!